Saturday, November 30, 2013

Praise for Klara's Journey

Ben Frank has made skillful use of his longtime expertise in researching the cultural and religious history of the far-flung diaspora of the Jewish people throughout the world and creating this credible and compelling novel about a passionate  young woman…”
 
 Gene Sosin, Ph.D., is a former senior executive of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
 
“Klara’s Journey”
 
“betrayal, high drama, love!”
·        
Available  wherever books are sold. On all ebook formats!
http://amzn.to/13Sp769
 
 

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Where is Klara on Thanksgiving, 1918?


And where’s Klara Rasputnis of “Klara’s Journey,” on Chanukah, 1918? She’s in Vladivostok, where she will be able to smell the salt waters of the Pacific Ocean. It’s been a year since she left Odessa. 
 
“ I feel like a sprinter crashing past the finish line in a long marathon,” she says…
 
  A few weeks later, Klara will stand on the upper deck of the SS Nippon Maru. She’s going to the “Land of the Rising Sun. ….”
 
“So long Vladivostok. Bye darling Sid.”
 
“Back at the Welfare Center, however,  the director, staff, and guests wonder why Klara left so early in the morning, without notice, without a good-bye, and without official papers?” 
from “Klara’s Journey,” an historical novel, a story of “betrayal, high drama and love.” Make a great holiday gift.  Available on all ebook formats, http://amzn.to/13Sp769

Happy Chanukah/ Thanksgiving

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Lest we forget!

Lest we forget. Time stood still at 2120 hours on the night of November 26, 2008, in Mumbai, India. Terrorists attacked all over the city, hotels, cafes, the rail terminals, and Nariman House, a five-story building in south Mumbai and home of Chabad. 174 persons, including nine gunmen, lost their lives. Six Jews are Nariman House were murdered  in the attack on the city which  shook India, the world and the Indian Jewish community which has experienced hardly a drop of anti-Semitism throughout its long history. As we are about to celebrate Chanukah, let us note that the Jewish community in India remains very strong and united. For more on “Incredible India,” and its Jewish community, check out “The Scattered Tribe: Traveling the Diaspora from Cuba to India to Tahiti and Beyond,” (Globe Pequot Press) http://amzn.to/J3Z47T Wherever books are sold and an ebook.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Radio interview!

Just taped a radio interview today on WFDU-fm, 89.1,” -The Voice of Fairleigh Dickinson ... Teaneck, NJ, to air Sunday morning, November 24,  at 6 am. Interviewed by Carl Kraus on his program, “Digest.”  Talked about “Klara’s Journey,” a story of “betrayal, high drama and love,” and that Klara’s Journey,” (Marion Street Press) an historical novel is a great gift for Chanukah and the holidays.

 Available on all ebook formats, including, Kindle:http://amzn.to/13Sp769,Nook link: http://bit.ly/1htY9vY

at www.bengfrank.blogspot.com “I Travel the World.” Follow me on twitter @bengfrank :

 

Thursday, November 21, 2013

My Article on Pastoral Kfar Blum

Sunday, November 17, 2013

My article on Burma in B'nai B'rith Magazine


 
http://mydigimag.rrd.com//display_article.php?id=1548613&id_issue=181545
 
Jewish Geography


Ben G. Frank
Here is an article on the Jewish community of Myanmar (formerly Burma) I wrote for B'na B'rith Magazine, winter edition. Check out my chapter on Burma in  "The Scattered Tribe, Traveling the Diaspora from Cuba to India to Tahiti & Beyond," Globe Pequot Press . Available wherever books are sold and an ebook.


One sweltering day a few years ago in that far-away, once secretive Asian land known as Burma, now officially known as Myanmar, I gazed at the entrance of a two-story, blue-and-white stone building. I had arrived at the synagogue in Yangon, the city formerly called Rangoon

 A few moments later, Than Lwin, known to the 21 Jews in Myanmar as Moses Samuels, appeared. He bears the burden of Burmese Jewish life on his shoulders. Every day, this 62-year-old walks 45 minutes from his home to open the doors of 117-year-old Musmeah Yeshua, at 85 26th Street, to keep Judaism alive in Myanmar, the land of the Golden Pagodas. He is fulfilling a promise to his late father, Isaac, to never allow the house of worship to close.


 Since that visit, the country that had long isolated itself from the outside world has undergone a political metamorphosis. Thus, in November 2012, President Obama traveled to Burma to visit Aung San Suu Kyi, “the lady,” Nobel Peace Prize winner and former “prisoner of conscience,” freed from 15 years of home detention in 2010, and now, suddenly, elected to the lower house of the Burmese parliament.



 Her courage helped force a 50-year-old, repressive military regime to initiate political and electoral reforms, including the release of thousands of prisoners. Those actions, however tentative and precarious, gave 51 million citizens at least the hope for complete freedom, and also augured well for the survival of a tiny Jewish community with deep cultural roots.

 

 With the opening, tourists began flocking to this nation. With hotels booked up, tourism agencies were telling clients, “Now is the time to visit, to experience Burma’s true authenticity before it inevitably takes its place on the tourist map,” according to an advertisement in the London Times on Oct. 18, 2012. Among the visitors are Jews interested in finding Jewish sites. An Israeli backpacker told me his city map marked 26th Street with a Jewish star, so he walked there and found Musmeah Yeshua.

 

 To the extent that Burmese Jewry exists today it is largely due to the dedication of Moses Samuels and his son, Sammy, 33, descended from family members who came to Burma from India in the 1890s. Sammy, whose Burmese name is Aung Soe Lwin, is a graduate of Yeshiva University in New York City, where he lives. Until 2012, he normally spent three months in Myanmar, but now that he has opened a business there (MS Global Consulting), he stays longer.


 This father-and-son team heads Myanmar Shalom Travels, (www.myanmarshalom.com), which not only books tours for a “special Jewish experience in Burma,” but with the lifting of most U.S. and EU sanctions leveled at the country, works with American, Israeli and EU businesses interested in investing in this fast-emerging market. Because of increased tourism, Myanmar Shalom has expanded its office in Yangon and added branches in Bagan and Mandalay.
 

 Moses takes care of the synagogue. Nearby stores, which occupy synagogue property, contribute a total of $59 a month for its upkeep and repairs. Sammy gives part of the profits of his travel agency to the congregation. A rabbi has not served here for more than 40 years.


 Usually, Moses doesn’t get a minyan (a quorum of 10 men) for daily services. Moses and Sammy note, however, that the number of Jewish businesspersons, staff of non-governmental organizations and and diplomats has increased, especially since the upgrading of the U.S. embassy’s diplomatic status last year from a charges d’affaires to the appointment of a new ambassador, Derek J. Mitchell. The arrival of more officials and tourists has meant more Friday night services at the synagogue. If Sammy is in Yangon, he conducts the Sephardic service that Burmese Jews brought from Iraq and India. Moses, with his wife, Nelly, and two daughters,Dinah and Kaznar, greet Jewish tourists.


 For the last two years, Sammy has organized a public Chanukah candlelighting ceremony with more than 120 invited guests, including top Myanmar government officials; EU representatives; and Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Baha’i and Hindu religious leaders.


 During last year’s holiday celebration, Israeli Ambassador Hagay M. Behar stressed “the longlasting and good relations between the Jewish community, the people of Israel and the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.” In an e-mail, he added: “I think that the Myanmarian government and civil society really appreciate the achievements of the State of Israel,” includng those in agriculture, science, technology and health. 

 Sammy notes that both Israel and Burma were born in 1948 from areas formerly ruled by the British, and strong ties were forged early on between U Nu, the county’s first prime minister who led his nation on and off for 14 years, and David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel. After Burma recognized Israel in December 1949, U Nu became the first foreign prime minister to visit the Jewish state. Ben-Gurion traveled to Burma and spent two weeks there in 1961. Later, prominent Israeli visitors included former Prime Minister Golda Meir, Israeli diplomat Abba Eban, military leader Moshe Dayan and Shimon Peres, two-time former prime minster and currently president of Israel. After the military coup in 1962, Burma isolated itself from outside influences.


“We love Burma so much and want to keep the Jewish spirit alive,” Sammy Samuels said. “Being in the synagogue gives us our tie to Judaism.”
 

Musmeah Yeshua, which means, “Brings Forth Salvation,” has beautiful stained glass windows similar in style to the grand Magen David Synagogue in Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta), India. At one time, this house of worship possessed 126 Torahs resting on shelves mounted on the wall of a small, round room. In Burma, it was customary and a great honor for a family to donate a Torah. Moses showed me the last two remaining Torahs, which are in round wooden, cases covered with silver and designed in the style of the Torah scrolls familiar to Babylonian Jews. The other 124 Torah scrolls were taken out of the country when Jewish families began departing Burma beginning in the 1940s and carried to their new homes in the Diaspora and Israel.
 

 The nearby old Jewish cemetery on 91st Street, where pebbles rest on tombstones, stands as another memory of a vibrant Jewish community and a rich heritage.
 

 The first Jew in Burma was Solomon Gabirol, who served as a commissar in the army of King Alaungpaya (1752-1760). Then, in the early part of the 19th century, two European Jews moved to Burma from Galicia and Rumania, both as suppliers to the British Army.
 

 While a minority of Jews came from India and were known as the Bene Israel, most who arrived in the mid-19th century were originally “Baghdadi Jews,” from Iraq. Famous commercial families set up trading networks in Southeast Asia, and business leaders helped bring commercial expansion to Burma. “In Burma,” wrote the late Ruth Fredman Cernea, in her book, “Almost Englishmen: Baghdadi Jews in British Burma,” Jews from the Oriental Diaspora discovered “a wide-open land of opportunity for commercial enterprise, especially once the British extended their empire in India east into Burma in the latter half of the 19th century.”

 

In the 1930s, about 1,500 Jews called Burma home. Burmese Jews lived a very comfortable life, so much so that Cernea entitled one of her book chapters, “Beautiful Burmese Days.” Jews mixed with Christians, Burmese, Hindus, Muslims and Chinese, but almost all of it on a social basis, with minimal intermarriage. Two Jews served as mayors: one in Rangoon, another in Bassein. And, the Sofaer family donated the iron gates at the entrance to the Rangoon Zoo. Mordecai Isaac Cohen built the cast-iron bandstand in Bandula Square. Both are still standing today.


“It was a very good life,” recalled Simon Saul of Upland, Calif., who was born in Rangoon to a leading commercial family, adding, “Many worked for British companies.”


The Sauls had arrived in Burma from India in the early 20th century. Simon lived with his parents, two brothers and a sister close to the railway station. The children attended the Jewish English School. “We celebrated the holidays in our beautiful synagogue.” The Saul family left Burma twice, the first time to return to India after the brutal Japanese bombing of Rangoon in December 1941, then after World War II in 1945. They moved to the United States in 1949 to be with a daughter who married an American GI.


 To 90-year old Joseph Hyam Sassoon of Los Angeles, whose family arrived in Burma in the 1880s, “We had everything,” including rickshaws, carriages and motorcars. After the Japanese attacked Burma in December 1941, the family left for India, as did many other Burmese Jews. Following the war, they returned briefly for a visit but, otherwise, left Burma for good for India. The Sassoons immigrated to the United States in 1951.


 After World War II, several hundred Jews returned to Burma. But, the community “was devastated and never recovered,” wrote Cernea. Many emigrated to Israel in 1948, others to British Commonwealth nations and the United States. When the Burmese military seized control in 1962 and set up a harsh and repressive dictatorship, nationalized industry and isolated Burma, nearly all the Jews departed. (These military rulers renamed their country Myanmar in 1989.)


 More than 50 years later, Myanmar appears to be on the road, however winding, to democratic government, even as it deals with internal ethnic and religious conflicts. With talk of American foreign policy pivoting to Asia, Burma—strategically located between China and India—is critical to meeting the challenges of the new global power, China. But a large-scale return of Jews seems unlikely.


 Simon Saul, who went back to visit in the 1990s, doesn’t believe Burmese Jews will return permanently. “The younger generation is very settled in the Diaspora and Israel,” he says.


 The realists say the future of Burmese Jewry is tenuous. Still, says Sammy Samuels, “With American and British Jews and Israelis investing in Myanmar, our community could actually grow.”


To which Rabbi Marvin Tokayer, author, scholar and expert on the Oriental Diaspora, adds, “Hopefully, this won’t be the last page of the history of Burmese Jews but the beginning of a new chapter.”
 

Friday, November 15, 2013

Incredible India: Israel, India ties grow!


Israel, India ties grow as 2 nations do business!
 
A few quotes from a fascinating article in Ynet news underscores my chapter on India in “The Scattered Tribe,Traveling the Diaspora from Cuba to India to Tahiti & Beyond,” (Globe Pequot Press). http://amzn.to/J3Z47T   Hopefully, it will lead to a “strong Indo-Israel Alliance.”

“Israel and India have long had an extensive military relationship totaling approximately $9 billion each year. Israel has sold India advanced weapons systems and planes and the two countries hold joint military drills annually. India has also recently launched a military satellite for Israel.

“Now the economic sector is catching up. The Indian company Jain’s recently bought the Israeli drip irrigation company Naan-Dan that had been run by two kibbutzim in Israel. Other Israeli irrigation companies also have a strong presence in India.

“The two countries are in the midst of negotiating a free-trade agreement which would expand the scope of trade significantly.”

 “Cyber-cooperation
“Another field of close cooperation is cyber security. According to Israeli media reports, cyber terrorists recently shut down the Carmel Tunnels Road in Haifa for almost eight hours, causing massive traffic jams and hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. Israel has long been a leader in the field of cyber security, while India has specialized in software development.”

 Check out my blog at www.bengfrank.blogspot.com “I Travel the World.” Follow me on twitter @bengfrank :  
 

Thursday, November 14, 2013

My article on Burma in Bnai Brith Magazine,just out, 11/12/13

My article in Bnai Brith magazine, on Burma. Check out my chapter on Burma also. "The Scattered Tribe: Traveling the Diaspora from Cuba to India to Tahiti & Beyond." (Globe Pequot Press}

http://mydigimag.rrd.com/publication/?i=181545&p=30.
 

Monday, November 11, 2013

Friday, November 8, 2013

Lest We Forget, Nov. 7, 1917

Lest we forget: On November 7,1917, 96 years ago, a putsch occurred in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) Russia. The take-over was known as the “Great October Socialist Revolution.” Proclaimed was the world’s first Communist state, a state that crumbled 74 years later, after murdering millions and dispatching millions to the gulag. Nobody ever dreamed that the “Communist god” would fail and that today we would have a Jewish community in Russia which revived from nothing after years of Soviet persecution.

Much of the story of “Klara’s Journey,” takes place during the Russian Civil War (1918-22) which followed the Bolshevik seizure of power. Her story is a tale of “betrayal, high drama and love.”

Available on all ebook formats, Kindle:
http://amzn.to/13Sp769. Also,nook, ipad, Kobo, etc. Nook link: http://bit.ly/1htY9vY

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Klara leaves Odessa. "Klara's Journey, " a story of betrayal, drama and love."

“Before leaving the house, Klara follows the age-old Russian folk custom of sitting on her suitcase and reflecting, meditating, praying, or wondering what lies ahead before embarking on her journey. Mischa waits outside their apartment at 21 Proharovskaya Street in the Black Sea port of Odessa. It’s the end of November, 1917, a few weeks after the “Glorious October Socialist Revolution.”

From “Klara’s Journey,” (Marion Street Press) an historical novel, “a story of betrayal, high drama and love.” Available on all ebook formats, Kindle:http://amzn.to/13Sp769. Also,nook, ipad, Kobo, etc. Nook link:
http://bit.ly/1htY9vY
>

Visit Kibbutz Lotan

Well-worth looking over this website and info, as well as stopping for a visit at Kibbutz Lotan, located in the desert about 40 miles north of Eilat: www.kibbutzlotan.com Fantastic work and progress in community and environmental development work, including organic gardening, and natural building which means building with recycled materials. I visited Kibbutz Lotan and wrote about the kibbutz’ eco-friendly work; such as, its solar-powered tea house, in “The Scattered Tribe: Traveling the Diaspora from Cuba to India to Tahiti & Beyond," (Globe Pequot Press) http://amzn.to/J3Z47T Check out my blog at www.bengfrank.blogspot.com “I Travel the World.” Follow me on twitter @bengfrank :